January- 347 attacks on polling day, 44 dead, including 9 attackersToday- Less than 13 attacks on polling stations, 3 Iraqi Soldiers died when they drove over a roadside bomb, no other deaths reported

With hope for a bright future, Iraqis vote today.An Iraqi child waits for her parents to vote in the referendum on Iraq’s new constitution in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday Oct. 15 2005. Iraqis vote Saturday to give a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a constitution that will define democracy in Iraq. (AP)

A roadside bomb killed three Iraqi soldiers in northeast Iraq on Saturday, and six people were wounded in attacks by insurgents on four of Baghdad’s 1,200 polling stations during the country’s constitutional referendum, police said.

Iraqis wait in long queues to vote in Iraq’s referendum on the new constitution in Mosul, Iraq, Saturday Oct. 15 2005.Iraqis vote Saturday to give a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a constitution that would define democracy in Iraq, a country once ruled by Saddam Hussein. (AP)

Current combat in Iraq is not simply the result of slapdash postwar planning. The United States has two strategic goals that have taken years to mesh in terms of political, economic and military operations.

Goal One: Engage al-Qaida on military and political battlefields in order to destroy its claim to “divine sanction” and to “speak on behalf of Islam.”

Goal Two: Seed development of modern, democratic states in the politically dysfunctional Arab Muslim Middle East.

Achieving both goals defeats al-Qaida. Goal Two is a multidecade project. Reaching it requires sustained, courageous effort, but Iraq’s January election and its constitutional process are signs of progress. Sensational carnage and “expert pessimism” dominated the international media’s January election coverage.

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